Where Is No. 1 St. John Bosco Staying In Las Vegas To Play Bishop Gorman?

For most of us, picking which resort to stay at is arguably the most important part of any Vegas run.

That isn't the case for St. John Bosco head coach Jason Negro, who had business instead of pleasure on his mind while choosing what hotel will house the No. 1-ranked Braves during their trip to Sin City to take on Bishop Gorman on August 21 in what many are considering a national championship eliminator.

The pick: JW Marriott in Summerlin, about 20 minutes from the famous strip. The reason: Past experience.

"I learned a brutal lesson in 2014," Negro said of the time a pre-arranged package for an ESPN-televised game against Bishop Gorman somehow landed the Braves in an undesirable spot. "We stayed at Palace Station, but it wasn't in the main tower, it was like in the back behind it. I will never let anyone book our travel again."

The next time St. John Bosco came to Las Vegas for a game was in 2019 to play Liberty and Negro liked his team's accommodations at JW Marriott, also referred to as Rampart, so much that he's taking them back there again.

Negro, like most native Southern Californians, made plenty of Vegas runs in his younger years. These days, though, he is more interested in keeping his players safe and out of trouble as opposed to having a good time.

St. John Bosco football coach Jason Negro. | Tarek Fattal

"I don't care whether we're playing in Utah or Vegas, I'm going to protect our kids the same way," Negro said. "We really don't give them any time alone. The biggest thing is midnight to 6 a.m. when the kids go to bed. What we've done is hire private security to roam the halls and make sure nobody gets out and nobody gets in."

But what about the St. John Bosco parents and their desire to enjoy Vegas?

"I don't necessarily care about the parents," Negro said with a laugh. "Whether they get into mischievous stuff or not isn't going to affect the play on the field."

NO FUN IN THE SUN

A bigger issue for St. John Bosco than staying out of trouble will be contending with the heat. A late August game in Las Vegas is very likely to mean 100-plus degree temperatures around kickoff.

The well-traveled Braves have a plan for that, too. When game week arrives, Negro says players will start supplementing, even getting intravenous hydration so that there's no issue on game night. These are tricks of the trade learned from playing in early season hot weather situations previously in places like Florida and Virginia.

"We talk to our kids about hydration all the time and what they should and shouldn't be drinking like sodas and lemonades," Negro said. "The other thing we're going to have to focus on is depth. Our No. 2 guys have to be ready in case someone goes down. Even though there might be a drop in talent, you can't afford to not have guys ready to put in a game like this."

Be sure to check on all of High School On SI's preseason football coverage, as reporter Aram Tolegian breaks down all the top players and releases his Top 20 teams in the Las Vegas area.

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